Maeve's POV ~
We drove down the road listening to some pop song on the radio. Bruce was sitting next to me in the back. "How far do you have to go?" Donna asked him. "To your girlfriend."
"Just up a ways. I'll know the exit when I see it."
"Is she expecting you?" Brooke asked.
"Sure is."
"Do you guys think we should find Alex and call him?" I interrupted. "He might wanna be here for this."
"We can tell him after. We don't have time to wait. Why didn't you call your girlfriend and have her pick you up?" Brooke changed the subject back to Bruce. I looked out the window and watched as we passed by fields.
"She doesn't like to drive. The roads scare the hell out of her." Bruce spoke. "I heard about this on the news. It's happening all over. So you're driving at night and you see a car coming towards you with it's headlights turned off.As a courtesy, you flash your lights to let him know to turn on his headlights. That car then makes a U-turn. They follow you home and kill you." I turned to pay attention to the man. "There's true evil out there."
"No, I think you're just trying to scare us." Brooke tuned to face him. "I've dealt with people like you every day for the last five years. They use fear to try and control others. It's not gonna work with us. We made a mistake. Your rides over."
"Woah, woah, I was just making conversation." He put his arms up in defense. "I'm sorry if I said something that got under your skin."
Brooke told Donna to pull over and she did. Bruce leaned back into the seat. "Just trying to be nice." I told him to shut up. Donna stopped the car as Bruce started to light a cig.
"Sorry, dude, you gotta get out." She told him.
"Do I, Donna?" He cocked his head to the side. Donna looked at me and then Brooke. Bruce stuck his hand out the window. "It's an oven outside. I could get heatstroke. You wouldn't want that on your conscience, would you, Donna?" Brooke turned to face the back.
"We're not gonna ask you again." A police car pulled up behind us.
"Shit." I said under my breath. Brooke looked at me with a panicked look in her eye before shoving something in her bag. A man got out of the police car and walked up to the car window. Donna rolled it down.
"Everything okay? There's no services out here for miles." The police officer asked.
"Everything's fine officer." Bruce saluted the man.
"You guys together?" Donna looked back at me.
"Actually, We just met him." I said. "Talked us into giving him a ride."
"Haven't you seen the posters of the girls that have gone missing along this highway? I'm gonna need to see some ID from everyone." I look over at Bruce who is pulling something out of his pants. I see that it's a gun and my eyes widen. He aims it at the cop and shoots. Bruce gets out of the car as the cop falls to the ground.
"Shit! Go!" Donna stepped on the gas and sped away. I could hear Bruce yell 'Fuck you!" From behind. He fired his gun off a few times. I ducked down in the seat. After the gun stopped goin in off i leaned over to close the open door. We were far away from Bruce. Donna stopped behind a truck at a red light.
"I never thought I'd say this, but my mom was right. Never talk to strangers." Donna said. I let out a small laugh. The cop car came speeding up behind us. I flew forward in my seat on impact. Our car hit the truck in front of us. I heard a gun shot go off as I lost consciousness from impact.
When I woke up I was in the back of a truck. I had rope around my wrists and ankles and duct tape over my mouth. I looked back and saw Donna tied up and laying on the road. I looked into the truck. Bruce had a gun held at Brooke. She was in the drivers seat. I watched the front carefully. Bruce cocked the gun and held it at Brooke. She looked back and we made eye contact before Brooke turned back to Bruce. I saw her start the truck. Gun still at her head. I held on to anything I could grab. The truck flew backwards fast almost sending my flying out if I had let go. Once the truck stopped I looked to see if Donna was okay. There was no blood or guts on the road so she was fine. She climbed out from under the truck and helped untie me. I heard a gun shot go off and I quickly looked back to Brooke. Bruce fell out of the car. Brooke had shot him. Donna ran up and wrapped the rope around Bruce's neck. "Donna wait!" Brooke yelled.
"Hell no! I'm chocking this motherfucker out!" She strangled him.
"You don't wanna do that, trust me."
"We can't let him get away with it!" I told Brooke.
"Who said anything about that?" She smiled. The girl hit him over the head with her gun knocking him out. We tied him up to the telephone pole with the rope. Once he woke up Brooke cut off him thumbs. "Jesus." I whispered to myself. Donna looked at me.
"Your hitchhiking days are over asshole." Brooke said dropping his thumbs on the ground. She picked up her bag and put it on her shoulder. I started walking towards redwood away from the truck.
"What are you doing?" Donna asked.
"This is as far as you go. Redwoods close enough. We can walk it the rest of the way," I said. Brooke walked up next to me. "You've done more than enough." We began to walk away. Before Donna stopped us.
"I'm coming with you." She sighed. "I need to see this through to the end."
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one day before halloween
Maeve's POV~
Donna, Brooke, and I sat in a diner and ate breakfast. "Lost in a memory?" Donna asked Brooke who has been silent.
"Just thinking about the future, actually. I can go anywhere when this is over. Do anything. I need to get a new social security number, but otherwise, I'm no one." She explained.
"Where do you think you'll go?" I asked.
"I don't know. Australia, maybe. I always loved those Crocodile Dundee movies. The first one, at least." She took a breathe. "I'll figure it out. As soon as Margaret's dead and can't hurt anyone again."
"Let's go back to the motel until it gets dark." I suggested. "Then we can sneak in. Too risky during the daylight."
"And in the meantime you better start eating." Donna told Brooke. "Margarets probably got that crazy-person strength, and you're gonna need that kinda strength if you're gonna be the final girl."
"Final girl?"
"That's right you missed the 80s. Every horror movie has a final girl, the one who survives it all and lives to tell the tale. As I see it, that's either you are Margaret." Donna sipped her coffee,
"Why can't it be you?" Brooke asked.
"Or me?" I asked.
"A black final girl? Sweetheart, they kill folks off with my complexion first. As for you, Meave. I don't know. I just have a feeling about Brooke."
"Seems fair." I dead-pan before taking a bit of bacon. A woman walked up to our table. She had red hair and black glasses.
"I'm Stacey Phillips. Has anyone ever told you that you look exactly like Brooke Thompson." I looked at Donna and then Brooke. Brooke looked worried before she quickly brushed the look away.
"Yeah, all the time. It's like, why can't I looks like Michelle Pfeiffer?" She joked. The woman sat down next to Donna.
"You guys up here for the festival?"
"Totally."
"Yeah." We answered.
"I knew it. I heard there were Brooke and Jingles groupies, but I've never met one. Your costume is incredible, though Im sure it didn't take much effort. I'm with the press. National Enquirer. I know most people think we're a rag, and we are, But it pays the bills." The woman continued to go on. I rolled my eyes slightly at Donna showing how annoying she was. She just nodded in agreement. "I write books mostly, about serial killers. I did one on Bundy another on Ed Gein. It's funny because back in the 70s all anyone cared about was was Bigfoot and aliens and the Lock Ness monster, all that Leonard Nimoy In search of shit. But the 80s have been all about serial killers, human monsters. My new book is about Brooke and Jingles and the massacres up at Camp Redwood."
"So morbid." Donna said while getting a piece of fruit with her fork.
"Oh, morbid's where the money is. To me, that camp represents everything that's wrong with the 1980s. A veneer of wholesomeness covering a violent darkness. Have you been to a high school lately." She scoffs. "It's not John Hughes. Kids are doing coke, bringing guns into school. All these clearly gay British musicians pretending to be straight. History's gonna look back at the 80s as the era of bullshit." I looked at Brooke annoyed. This bitch just goes on forever. "Honestly, between Iran-Contra, AIDS, that TV show Small Wonder, and crack, I'm pretty sure the 80s are the end of the world as we know it."
"Nice meeting you." Broke said. To try and nicely get her away. "Hopefully, see you up at the camp." We got up out of the booth.
"Are you gonna finish that?" Stacey pointed at the food.
"All yours sweetheart." Donna shooed her out of her way. We walked away.
"She recognized me I know it." Brooke whispered to me.
"She can't recognize you, you're dead." I said back. Once we got back to the hotel room we sat quietly. I watched TV and Brooke read a book. Until we heard knocking at the door. Donna got up to the door and looked through the peep hole.
"I know you're in there." It was the woman from before. Donna looked back at Brooke.
"Don't open it." She whispered. She opened the door anyways.
"Hi, Donna. I know who you are. All of you." The woman has a big grin on her face. Donnas face was cold and stern.
"How?" Donna put her hand on her hip.
"Come to my room and I'll show you."
"You're rather confident." I said. Donna looked back at Brooke who shook her head slightly. We headed to the woman's room and she showed us her research.
"I've been studying the 84 massacre at Camp Redwood for three years. You might say I'm the world foremost expert on it. Well, except, of course, for you, Donna." She searched through her evidence box and pulled out a vhs tape. "Ah. Here it is."
"How you know my name?" Donna asked. Brooke stood up from the bed.
"Well, I first heard about you when I was studying the Jingles escape from Red Meadows Asylum. He never got visitors, but you visited him a week before he escaped. I did a deep dive into you, read your papers on serial killers, found out about your dad. Yikes. I know you pretty well. It wasn't until I saw you together at the diner until I realized it was you at the execution."She put in the VHS tape and showed the footage of the execution. "I had to pay the warden 1,500 bucks for this. What I don't under stand is why Maeve is with you." I shifted my weight onto my other foot uncomfortably. "I mean, she slaughtered all of your friends. Did you help with the break out? The only thing I can't figure out is why. A lot of effort to go through all this. Pretty risky. What's the connection between you?" We all looked at each other before Brooke answered.
"Revenge."
"Brooke." Donna warned.
"We're the best story she's ever had. There's no way she's gonna let us go unless we give her an even better story." Brooke snapped back. I sat down on the bed.
"God, I hate writers. And reporters." I pulled out a cigarette. "You mind of I smoke?" They all shook their heads.
"Okay, I'm hooked." Stacey said. "let's negotiate."
"We tell you everything. You sneak us back into camp in the trunk of your car. And once we get there, we'll walk you around. Show you were everything happened, tell you how everything happened. And, in exchange you met us go." She said. "You never reveal Donnas identity, and you don't tell anyone that I'm still alive. Not until the book comes out."
"Seems fair." Stacey shrugged. "But what's the new angle you're hinting at." She pointed at us with her pen. "Give me a taste." Brooke looked between me and Donna.
"Jingles didn't kill all those people in the 70s." I revealed. " And Brooke didn't kill anyone five years ago. Well, expect Montana. In self-defense. She was kinda bitch anyways." I smiled at Brooke. "It was Margaret Booth."
"That's why we're going up there. Justice." Donna said.
"If you can prove to me that Margaret fucking Booth is actually one of the most vicious and prolific serial killers of all time, I'll buy you first class tickets to Paris." She said.
"Cool. I like Paris." I stood up and we got ready to head to camp. "But first I have to call somebody."
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At the camp
Maeve's POV ~
We lead Stacey to the spot where Brooke was tied up with a net. "Let me get this straight. Margaret Booth wasn't the only serial killer at the camp. Richard Ramirez aka the Night Stalker, was also here with Mr. Jingles. They fought to the death while you were caught in a net dangling from this tree."
"That's right."
"And Donna was behind that bush but where we're you during this, Maeve?" She asked.
"Behind that bush. With um," I quieted my voice down as it hurt to say her name. "Tess."
"It's a wonder they didn't let you testify at your trial." She shook her head.
"You don't believe me?" Brooke asked.
"Oh honey I do. In my experience truth is often stranger than fiction." She walked towards us. "I made a good living because of that. But in a way it doesn't matter, because this is your story, told from your point of view, so, whatever you say is right, is right."
"She's giving it to you straight." Donna defended. "Truth is not malleable."
"I work for the Enquirer. My motto is never let the facts get in the way of the truth, and never let the truth get in the way of a story that sells." She started walking away.
"That bitch don't give a shit about nothing but a pay check. She's going to expose us. She will ruin our lives." Donna said.
"Told you. Reporters are the worst." I rolled my eyes.
"It'll be fine. We just have to show we the shack you tied me up in." Brooke said.
"How is that gonna change anything?" I asked.
"That's where i'll kill her." Brooke explained.
"Jesus christ." I put my hand on my forehead. "Brooke, you can't just fucking kill someone cause it's convenient. What the fuck is wrong with you?" I whispered angrily.
"She is not leaving this camp alive." She protested.
"Brooke, you're not a murderer. The only person you killed, was in self-defense." Donna told her.
"That Brooke died in prison five years ago. This is who I am now." She said angrily before her demeanor changed as she invited Stacey back over to go to the shack. We told Stacey about Donna using Brooke as bait on the way to the shack. Only we didn't tell her it was Donna. Brooke showed her inside while Donna and I talked and smoked.
"You on board with this whole murder thing?" I asked.
"Well, what are we gonna do? She leaves here are lives are ruined."
"True." We stood in silence for a few moments. We turned to watch Brooke. She had the knife held up to Staceys neck.
"I can't let her do this." Donna ran up to Brooke and grabbed her and shoved her on the ground. "I can't let you do this!" She got on top of Brooke and grabbed the knife. "I agreed to help you kill one person and one person only." I turned to the writer and told her to run. She did and Brooke screamed and tried to get out from under Donna. Donna moved her and threw her against the shack. "This isn't who you are." She said. "There's evil inside you, yes. It's in us all dormant and waiting. I learned that from my father. It grows in us like a cancer, but only if you feed it what it wants. Our hate and anger. That's how Margaret became who she is. Same thing with Mr. Jingles."
"All I have is anger."
"You're wrong. You have me. And together, we have a purpose. One righteous motherfucking act of revenge. And if we can do that without hurting another soul in the process, it'll wash away every shitty thing we ever did." Donna said.
"And we can all be final girls?" Donna let her grip off of Brooke.
"Yeah. Just not yet."
"Haven't seen you in a while." I heard a voice from behind me.